Chapter 10 - Bounty Hunt (3)

2 weeks later (2)

Two weeks is a pretty long time.

Even ordinary Awakeners who has just been awakened, will noticeably grow after two weeks of systematic training.

Even a beginner who couldn’t use weapons properly could handle the monsters quite well.

However, prospects with high-ranking instincts or physically superior specifications from the beginning—or known as buds, were different.

As pushed by their companies and countries, they complete twelve times the growth of others within a period.

In about two weeks, it was possible to immediately put them into action on the D-rank gate site.

That’s why it’s said that the world of awakening was more in the talent play than any other field.

A few people could overcome the difference, but they were also different from the rest—they do predation.

During the two-week period, Il-hyun ate dozens of Ether cores.

He kept pulling Ether from dead bodies inside the house.

Pulling a core without an extractor from a monster with his own bare hands has become a casual routine for him.

Il-hyun took the core and looked back.

“Don’t worry. The country will compensate you for the smashed building. That human, well, he’s awakened, so it would be safe if he had it.”

He said, pointing at the yellow head still leaning on the wall.

“Thank you. Thank you,” they muttered.

The woman had her head between her knees. The man sitting on the wheel chair enclosed her in an embrace.

Il-hyun’s face suddenly changed in the middle, and when he saw the same two faces, he felt awkward, but he didn’t show it as much as he’d like to.

“This bastard… Did you turn into my face? Ah…!”

The yellow hair who leaned on the front door, made a painful sound when saw his one-sided figure, his eyes widening.

He heard that Scavenger had a disguise ability, but it was a completely different story than being surprised by his ability.

“Oh, right. I forgot about one thing.”

“Ah…! Don’t come!”

As Il-hyun approached, the frightened yellow-haired held up his sword.

“Aw…!”

Il-hyun broke his hand with his light sword. He looked through the yellow hair’s arms and took out his cell phone.

Kwajik!

The cell phone became a thinly chopped ratpo as Il-hyun continuously stepped on it.

“S…shit!”

“I guess I’m going now? Don’t come out until the police says so. Don’t start bleeding quickly before the monster weakens,” Il-hyun told the young couple before he opened their veranda door, and jumped straight down.

The woman who watched what he did shouted in amazement.

“Wait, we’re in the 13th floor…!”

Thud!

Il-hyun, who landed on the floor with both feet, frowned.

The strong impact of his landing broke the parking lot floor. Debris were everywhere.

Il-hyun’s legs were a little erratic, but it was only for a while. Unlike the cracked concrete floor, his legs were fine.

Il-hyun looked around before wiping off the dust on his clothes.

No one has seen him.

Il-hyun whistled for a long time, and the mice that had been released in the field began to gather one by one.

“Did you find someone?” one out of the twenty mice he gathered, nodded.

There were more people who couldn’t escape even after the efforts of the police.

Il-hyun bounced his finger.

Then all but the one mouse that nodded, turned into sand and scattered on the floor. The mice are made of sand so as not to leave any trail behind.

“Come on. Lead the way.”

The mouse ran ahead, and he followed.

Il-hyun ran and threw three pieces of his sword into the sky.

After a piece of knife got trapped in the air, he grabbed it in one hand.

The body was hit in the middle, but after gently separating the neck, it kept its pace.

“Seongtae! Is it over?” A one awakened person said from afar.

He must have thought it was his partner, the yellow head, but it was Il-hyun that copied and changed his face.

As an one of the awakened, he clearly heard his voice, but he pretended not to hear it.

Even if he could change his face, it was impossible to change my voice.

As Il-hyun kept running, the man he was talking to angrily smashed the monster. He was surprised when he entered the underground parking lot with his mouse.

Moving corpses were filling the basement.

He hid on the wall and began to grasp the situation.

“What are they? There’s too many of them…”

At least a hundred, at most.

The number of monsters in the underground parking lot was too many that they couldn’t see the bodies coming down from the upper gate.

“A double gate?” Il-hyun raised his eyebrows.

Unlike other gates that usually appear one at a time, several gates appeared this time.

In this case, the gate wasn’t exactly easy to detect because it was created with the same coordinates, the same kind, but with slightly different heights.

Besides, it was located in the basement, so it seemed to have not yet been found.

The awakened people who went to the scene usually caught the monster trying to escape.

Places like underground parking lots—they couldn’t escape it. Therefore, the clean up toward the final stages began.

“Is there anyone still alive?” he lowered his voice and asked the mouse that’d led him to this place.

The mouse nodded and pointed in one direction.

He saw a warehouse door that’s tightly closed on one wall. The mouse seemed to say that someone was hiding in it.

“I thought you developed a sense of smell… Are you only responding to the smell of blood?” He thought that when he climbed the apartment that his sense of smell developed.

However, when he couldn’t find anything across the door. He seemed to rely mainly on sight and hearing except for the smell of blood.

“First, from the CCTV…”

Il-hyun looked at the surveillance cameras all over the underground parking lot.

Then, he raised his hand to use his ability.

All cameras in the basement got crumpled like crushed tin cans that fell on the floor.

After hearing the sound, the corpses’ eyes were everywhere. From behind the wall, Il-hyun pulled a lighter out of his pocket.

There was a sparking sound as the lighter created a small flame.

When Il-hyun used his ability, the small fire grew bigger and bigger.

The flame, which is as big as a human head, burst out—it materialized quickly, and Il-hyun came face to face with its fox form.

It resounded with him, and he felt its hot flames.

The summoned familiar was in the air, and it gently gathered on Il-hyun’s left shoulder.

“Just follow the road. You don’t have to kill everything,” Il-hyun said.

His goal right now was to rescue people.

The Ether can wait.

Then, in response to his words, the fox’s fur sparks, and it began to rise.

“It’s better not to leave traces as much as possible… It would be okay if you burned a little.”

Il-hyun has hidden his ability as much as possible while working, except when it comes to changing his face.

Not only did he not want to reveal his identity, but he purposely left that space to wash off his Scavenger life any time.

He’s planning to close the space soon.

In the meantime, the corpses that figured out the presence of Il-hyun started to rush everywhere.

At the same time, the flames that made up the fox’s body also shook violently.

After focusing, the fox’s body turned into a large flame.

One of Il-hyun’s intense flames spread out ahead.

Quaang!

The stretched-out flame broke one pillar, and continued its way toward the warehouse’s door.

Bodies on the road burned black and oxidized, the surrounding bodies failing to approach the flames.

Il-hyun broke his way out.

A normal fire wouldn’t have nodded at Il-hyun, but the E-rank monster was a spark created by a powerful Awakener.

Il-hyun walked the path of the burning flame.

The flames he created did no harm to him.

In front of the warehouse’s door, Firefox roared at the end of the blaze and sat quietly while waiting for him.

When Il-hyun reached out, the monster jumped up and climbed over his shoulder.

“Alright, good job.”

He gently stroked the fox’s chin while bouncing his palms up and down. Then, the fox burned out and disappeared.

The mice that guided the road turned into sand and died on the floor.

Il-hyun immediately tried to open the door.

However, the locked door did not open with a rattling sound.

He took a little bit of strength to tear the door apart.

Il-hyun went into the warehouse with a bang, quickly roaming his eyes around.

Inside the small warehouse, he saw a small girl stuck in the corner.

At best, the child who appeared to be a typical elementary student, was holding her breath when the door fell roughly.

The child’s face paled. She trembled and burst into tears when Il-hyun’s eyes met with her’s.

“Oh, ah…!”

Il-hyun grabbed her shaky hand.

Then, he lifted the child with his other hand without a sword, and held her in his arms.

“Are you scared? Let’s go back.”

* * *

The human figure suddenly fell over the fence of the apartment complex.

Then, two police officers guarding the place were surprised and pointed at the muzzle.

When they realized that the figure passing over was an Awakener with a child, they shot down and approached.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Il-hyun with the yellow-haired face, handed the child over to the police.

When the police saw the limp girl, they anxiously asked if something was wrong.

“The child…”

“It’s okay. She’s just nervous,” At the end of Il-hyun’s sentence, the two police sighed with relief.

“Are there any more civilians who haven’t evacuated yet?”

“I don’t know, exactly… In the list of residents found, we just evacuated two young couple. Even though the emergency evacuation broadcast was working properly, it would have been difficult for one of the couples to get out quickly because of discomfort. Right now, I’m just hoping to stay safely inside the house until it’s cleared up…”

Among the widely known evacuation manuals, it was said that if you were at home and couldn’t evacuate within a short time, you should stay calm inside the house rather than trying to escape.

Waiting inside their houses while the gate is activated has a higher chance of survival rate than waiting for the monsters to be eradicated by Awakeners or the police that will come to their rescue.

But in the present case, there was no need to worry about them.

“Oh, those people—one of our colleagues are protecting the apartment.”

“Is that true?” The police asked in surprise.

It’s not 20 years of evangelism anymore, and these days, it’s considered rare for awakening teams to actively help citizens evacuate.

“Of course, it is. I’ll see you later. I have to go back.”

“Aren’t you going back to the scene?”

“I’m a little bit hurt… My other colleagues will take care of the remaining monsters.” Il-hyun rolled up his sleeves and lifted the wound on his arm.

It seemed to have been cut by something sharp, and the muscles were visible.

The startled police officer jumped and said, “Go and tend it. The ambulance is at the front door.”

Unlike the surprised police, Il-hyun laughed lightly, “No. You might be busy treating other people. The other Awakeners didn’t say much either. I’m also going to work early tomorrow.”

The police still looked at the wound anxiously, but the Awakener said he was okay and that he couldn’t bear to wait for the ambulance.

He was just saying hello carefully.

“Then, have a good time at work.”

Il-hyun, who said hello, turned around.

He took off the defensive coat, put it on his arm, and pressed his hood firmly.

And when he turned around the corner of the street where the police were out of sight, he reversed the color of the gray hooded sweat to white.

The black cotton pants turned into ripped jeans, and a dirty beard appeared on the face behind the hooded sweatshirt.

More than anything, the open wound on his arm got sealed up as if he had never been hurt—it mystically healed.

Il-hyun’s figure disappeared into the darkness.